User:John Cummings/Articles/IPU

do not require planning permission

Environmental damage
cause significant environmental damage especially to rivers

Pollution from IPUs has severely impacted several rivers across the UK, especially rivers which ?? Powys.

This pollution causes algal blooms with increasing frequency and length, depleting the oxygen in the water causing fish like brown trout, chubb and barbel as well as aquatic invertebrates and plants to suffocate to death. Fish and aquatic invertebrates are the main food source for otters, kingfishers, herons, eels and other protected species. "The rise of Intensive Poultry Units in the region is totally unprecedented and in areas like Powys, we know the ammonia is coming from poultry – its levels have reverted to those in 1990. The rapid expansion of the poultry industry poses the greatest short-term threat to biodiversity in Wales that I have experienced in over 30 years.”"

- Simon Bareham, principal air quality adviser at Natural Resources Wales

River Wye
The River Wye is being severly polluted by manure from the 10 million free range chickens for eggs and meat in intensive poultry units in Powys and Herefordshire, contaminating the Wye's tributaries. Pollution has become so bad on the River Wye that it has been used as an example of river pollution in the UK on Countryfile and in several national newspapers of including The Times, The Guardian and the Daily Mail. The Wye does not meet European and national standards on river health. "The Wye is dying at astonishing, heartbreaking speed. When I canoed it 10 years ago, the stones were clean. Now they are so slimy that you can scarcely stand up. In hot weather, the entire river stinks of chicken shit, from the 10 million birds being reared in the catchment.."

- George Monbiot There are over 110 IPUs in Powys, each with over 40,000 birds. "If this goes on, we will lose everything that we treasure about the Wye. It will turn a horrible, ugly green every time it gets sunny. The fish will go, and they will be followed by our kingfishers, our dippers and our herons."

- Simon Evans, Wye and Usk Foundation

Other articles
In addition runoff from dairy farms, farm slurry and silage liquor are entering the Wye, a study by the Welsh government found that only 1% of farm slurry stores in Wales met regulations and that farms were purposely spreading slurry on fields before high rainfall leading to increased run off into waterways. An investigation by Greenpeace found that Environment Agency staff cuts from austerity had reduced pollution inspections by up to one third. An internal report by the Environment Agency showed that the use of a “voluntary approach” by government was leading to increased levels of river pollution across the UK. Powys County Council approved the construction of 20 new free-range chicken sheds in 2019 and continues to license new chicken farms behind closed doors.

To use

 * https://www.cpreherefordshire.org.uk/issues-were-dealing-with/farming-in-herefordshire/intensive-livestock-units/
 * https://www.cpreshropshire.org.uk/poultry-farms
 * http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0cdl--00-00-10-0---0---0direct-10---4---0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--40-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL2.9&d=HASHcc169bf6bad2723363c6cb.2.2.1&gt=1
 * http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=133189&headline=Concerns%20raised%20about%20intensive%20poultry%20farming%20unit%20plan&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2020
 * https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/07/industrial-sized-pig-and-chicken-farming-continuing-to-rise-in-uk
 * https://www.insidermedia.com/news/wales/farm-plans-intensive-poultry-unit